


The Painter and the Jade

by Piroco



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cabaret, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Prostitution, Anachronic Order, Artist Eiji Okumura, Fluff, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Prostitute Ash Lynx, Romance, Vaguely Inspired By The Works of Toulouse-Lautrec, no beta we die like men, short story collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-21 20:37:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16583720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piroco/pseuds/Piroco
Summary: Eiji Okumura is a painter who leaves his sheltered life behind to pursue art even as it leaves him penniless and making posters for a living. Ash Lynx is a prostitute and actor at a run-down cabaret with nothing but his continued survival to look forwards.Both are permanent residents of the Sparkling Jade, a cabaret and known den of ill repute. Days become brighter as they come to know each other.-----A collection of short stories based on a Cabaret AU that would just not leave my mind.





	The Painter and the Jade

**Author's Note:**

> I should be working on zines right now. I should be working on WIPs right now. I should be working on the Banana Fish fic I have been planning since the beginning of October right now. Instead here I am posting _another work_ , because clearly I don't have enough to write.
> 
> This is what happened after I binged some of the latest BF episodes, cried for my boys to be happy, and read on some sad artists' biographies. Toulouse-Lautrec fyi.
> 
> Consider this warmup for the fics I'm supposed to be writing. _That's what I'll do to feel less guilty_ (；￣Д￣)
> 
> Also, the title is a pun. Because I couldn't resist.
> 
> PLEASE READ: Yes, this fic will openly deal with prostitution. Yes, it will be a source of angst later. No, there will be no explicit abuse related to it and will deal with it as something some people are just forced to do to make ends meet. I don't want to make this story something super dramatic, I just want to have a Moulin Rogue-esque story with a happy ending. Also for the sake of not tagging this Underage (because it will barely deal with those issues, not enough to merit the tag) all the characters involved in sex and prostitution are adults.
> 
> Anyways, have fun reading ❤
> 
> EDIT: ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* Now has a moodboard *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

The sounds of dancing stomps over wooden floors and the cheers and whistling of the audience thunders from within the worn-out walls of the Sparkling Jade, deafening any other sound. Despite being in the backstage, just a few steps away from the stage, Eiji can't hear the dancing showgirl's bawdy song over the ruckus outside, but it doesn't particularly disturb him, or the staff for that matter. 

This was just the usual. Just a particularly successful night. 

The cabaret bustles with activity, people come and go through the place. Eiji's little spot behind the curtain at the side of the stage is one of the only relatively quiet places there. Working conditions may not be ideal to him, but the staff knows he needs the space and are respectful enough to leave him to it. He's a painter, their poster maker, and with the schedule planned for this month they need him working extra hard. 

Eiji's gaze keeps switching between the dancers and his canvas, trying to capture the girls' image into the poster. It's a bit hard, not because of their constant movements, but because, despite being a permanent resident for a few months now and having gotten to know the true personas of these dancers, hidden underneath layers of makeup and immodest dresses, there's something about the cartoonish sexuality of their act that irks Eij. It keeps him from immersing himself into his work, more than the constant movements and noise around him does. 

Eiji sighs as he adds another layer of paint to one of the dancers' skirts. He has to put up with it and finish the poster, it's how he pays his rent anyways. 

If only this came as easily as his drawings do... 

Since he can't focus on the act of painting itself, Eiji focuses on the pressure to finish, less about perfection and more about completion. He's sure his patrons won't care as long as the picture is eye-catching anyways. 

Eiji doesn't notice the figure approaching him until they're just by his side. 

"Hey Eiji! How's it going?" 

"Ah!" Eiji gasps and turns in direction of the voice. His eyes immediately catch on the familiar sight of a taller man with shaved hair and a cheeky smile. "Shorter, you surprised me." 

"The actual surprise is that you heard me at all," Shorter replies, his voice a bit lower now that he's next to Eiji, but still loud enough to be heard over the noise outside. "Quite packed tonight, huh?" 

"Hn," Eiji hums in agreement, keeping in the conversation while he continues painting. "I think it's a bit more people than expected. Bones told me it always gets like this during the spring season. How are things outside? Good?" 

"Yeah," Shorter replies, crossing his arms behind his head. "Amazingly, none of these rowdy bastards are fucking anything or anyone without permission. Pretty orderly for a bunch of drunkards if you ask me. Leaves me and the boys without much to do tonight." 

"Well, if you're so bored you can watch the ladies from here, free of charge. If it's you I'm sure they won't mind," Eiji says with a smirk. 

"I'll pass," Shorter shrugs. "They're sweet girls, but you can't ask that of me after watching the same thing for an entire season each year." 

Both men fall silent for a moment. Eiji continues painting while Shorter looks around, before the latter speaks again. 

"Where's Ash?" 

Those two simple words do what the provocative dancers, disreputable location and indecent chatter outside couldn't, turn Eiji's previously undisturbed expression sheepish and bright red.

"He's, um... upstairs, _working_ , right now" 

"Ah..." Shorter replies, and then his lips draw into a mischievous grin at the sight of red-faced, flustered Eiji. "Awww, look at you! A grown-ass man living in a cabaret and surrounded by debauchery everyday and yet you turn into a blushing maiden when you think of Ash doing his night job. So cute!" He teases, poking Eiji in the cheek. 

Eiji turns redder in embarrassment, swatting Shorter away with one hand. "Cut it out! I just worry about him!" 

"Worry about him getting it on with someone else?" Shorter continues, stepping away to evade Eiji's hand with a cheeky grin still plastered on his face. 

Instead of a verbal response, Eiji picks up a broken footstool at his feet and throws it into Shorter's direction. The aim is purposefully off and Shorter evades it easily with a sidestep as he laughs at Eiji's outburst. 

"Piss off!!" Eiji snapped, and petulantly threw his head back in the direction of the dancers to continue his work. 

"Come on Eiji, don't be so angry, I was just teasing!" Shorter says between chuckles, walking towards Eiji again. 

"I noticed," Eiji pouts.  "But there's work to do and I can't focus like this, and if I don't finish this tonight then the patron won't pay me, so do me a favor and save the teasing for later." 

"Alright, alright," Shorter says, raising his hands in surrender. He takes a look at Eiji's side and notices a worn sketchbook lying on top of a box. Seeing Eiji is the only person in the cabaret who seems to be interested in art at all, and the sketchbook's placement, it's pretty obvious who it belongs to, even before looking at the name in the cover. Shorter takes it, giving a quick look to the slightly scratched, worn carton, drawn only with Eiji's full name written in pristine cursive on a corner. He waves the book in his hand before asking. 

"Hey Eiji, can I check your drawings?" 

"If it keeps you busy, sure," Eiji replies, calmer but still somewhat annoyed. 

Without another word Shorter plops himself on the same wooden crate the sketchbook was lying on and starts flipping through it. 

The first pages are pretty much what you would expect of an art student. Sketches of things, food and animals, in particular birds; pencil drawings of birds in flight or in repose, from songbirds to pigeons to the more aesthetic variants you may see behind the glass of any pet-store, and even some drawings of exotic birds from distant lands that could only have been referenced from zoology books, unless Eiji had been in those places himself. They're all marked by a very precise style, with particular care on the shading and patterns on the feathers. 

The next pages are the same, with the bird illustrations taking over for a few pages until the first drawing of a person appears, a rough sketch of a lady's profile. The drawings of birds are slowly replaced by sketches of people, not as detailed or as carefully drawn, and some of them smudged by time, hinting that Eiji may not have had as good pencils to make them as he had before. The sketches become rougher and rougher, losing the finesse they previously had, and some remain little more than an outline. 

Then, on a separate page, Shorter begins to see familiar faces, the cabaret's staff. He recognizes some of them, whom he met through Ash — Alex, Bones and Kong; there's drawings of the chorus girls, actors during a play, the serving and cleaning staff, and one of the street urchins who often comes by to deliver messages — Skipper, he recalls. He's surprised to see drawings of his gang as well, and one of himself, from the back with his face half-turned, that Eiji may have done while he was distracted, since he doesn't remember seeing Eiji draw him.

For a moment he thinks of asking Eiji, or maybe tease the answers out of him, but instead Shorter turns the other page and keeps his mouth shut. The whole page is filled only with various drawings of Ash. 

The next pages are the same, dedicated exclusively to Ash. From the front, the back, full body, half body or just his head, some active and some relaxed, posing in some and candid in others. There a noticeable increase in focus on them too, compared to previous drawings, that even someone as uninterested in the plastic arts as Shorter can easily notice. He takes a moment to flip back to the pretty bird drawings of the first pages, and then back, and yes, it's the same care and dedication. 

Even the pictures themselves start to take a more delicate quality. Careful traces that make out Ash's blond locks, the outline of his muscles, the subtle curves of his body... Even the shadows get the same amount of attention. If it wasn't for the whiteness of book paper Shorter would have thought some of these were photos. A half-page frame of Ash's eyes has Shorter's heart beating faster. But that's nothing compared to the next picture. 

A page dedicated solely to a full-body drawing of a sleeping Ash, the modesty of his body preserved only by the blanket covering some parts of it. The amount of dedication and detail make it obvious it must have taken hours to complete, hours that Eiji sat through doing nothing but draw a naked, sleeping Ash. It brings to Shorter's mind vaguely-remembered pictures of chubby maidens and angelic beauties that snobbish so-called "gentlemen" are always raving about. 

And it makes his heart beat even faster. 

Shorter has long been exposed to sexuality, as people in this side of town inevitably are. He's been a regular at the cabaret in both senses of the word, and gotten attentions from both females and males. This shouldn't make him hot under the collar, and yet... 

It feels as if he was spying on something that was never meant for his eyes. 

Shorter closes the sketchbook again, silently thankful Eiji isn't looking at him at the moment. He clears his throat before speaking again, "They're... really nice. Sorry I don't get this art thing very well. I'll... go see how things are going outside." 

Eiji, for his part, doesn't seem to notice anything weird about the way he's speaking. He stays facing the canvas and only moves his arm to wave Shorter goodbye, "Alright, talk to you later." 

Shorter nods and leaves wordlessly. He's distracted by mental images of an Ash made of graphite and his own rapid heartbeat, so much he doesn't notice the real Ash coming from one of the hallways until he's right in front of his face. 

"Hey Shorter." 

If he falters, Ash doesn't point it out. "Hey Ash. Free already?" 

"Yeah, finally. Was counting the seconds before I could leave," he says, lighting a match with one flick of his hand, bringing it to the cigarette in his lips and taking a long puff of it before speaking again. "Long night?" 

"Boring night. Folks singing together with the girls and being so obedient, hard to remember this is a cabaret and not a nursery. Leaves me with nothing to do." 

Ash chuckles, "Isn't that better for you? Last time you got in a brawl you needed stitches. Though I'm more surprised you survived Nadia when she found out, that glare of hers' could kill a lesser man." 

In lieu of words Shorter shrugs with a smile. It was true anyways. 

Ash stays silent for a moment before changing the topic, cigarette hanging between his fingers. "Have you seen Eiji?" 

"Right side of the backstage, painting." 

Ash nods, "I'll go check on him. See you later." 

"Right, see you," Shorter replies as his friend turns to leave. But now that his head is cooler and his heart is beating steadily again, he notices something different about Ash. His hair looks damp, and his clothes are different from the ones he wore a few hours ago. He must have taken his time to bathe and change. 

Which was all kinds of odd. Ash just didn't change before the night was over, clothes were too sparse for that. So if he did it must have been for a purpose, and given the direction he was going right now Shorter had a good idea what that purpose was. 

"These two are something else..." he muttered to himself before leaving.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're interested in my works and what's next on my posting schedule, visit my Tumblr [HERE](https://piroco.tumblr.com/). I'll be posting more Cabaret AU HCs and shenanigans there too, if you wanna ask or check out ❤
> 
> \- Moodboard Link: [HERE](https://piroco.tumblr.com/post/180156477225/even-the-pictures-themselves-start-to-take-a-more)


End file.
